A Dynamic Device

Dynavision International is creating a tool for the concussion recovery kit.

Dan Sellers played nine seasons of professional football, including stints in both the NFL and the Canadian Football League.

The former University of Cincinnati linebacker suffered six documented concussions before retiring in 1994. He can easily recall how trainers and coaches treated the injury nearly 20 years ago.

“Only if you didn’t know where you were at, then you had a concussion,” says Sellers, who now serves as a global business development specialist for Dynavision International located in West Chester. Sellers is charged with pushing a device that’s illuminating concussion recovery.

“It’s a game changer,” he says.

Initially built as a training and evaluation tool for athletes, the Dynavision D2 has become a baseline tool in identifying concussions, as well as the healing process. With awareness for traumatic brain injury at an all-time high, the D2 has become a device that major college athletic programs have begun clamoring for. The University of Cincinnati has four; Baylor University, University of Tennessee, New Mexico State University and The Ohio State University all have a D2; and more than 500 hospitals in 36 countries currently use the board.

The D2 has 64 buttons spread across a radial pattern and resembles a high-tech whack-a-mole game. The user stands arms-distance in front of the board, and, based on the program chosen, hits the lighted buttons while the D2 records and gauges cognitive skills like reaction times, peripheral vision and overall awareness. A computer monitors the results and gives doctors and trainers evidence of recovery in the form of statistics.

Phil Jones, CEO of Dynavision International, has been pushing the Dynavision boards for nearly 25 years. Jones played seven seasons as a defensive back in the Canadian Football League. During his last season in Toronto, a team of optometrists placed a device similar to the D2 in the team’s dressing room.

“We were all using it and seeing dramatic results and being more aware of what was going on the field,” says Jones “We could see hits coming and we had a whole team using it.”

After retiring in 1986, Jones purchased the company, and began selling the device to hospitals that used it as a rehabilitation tool in evaluating patients with stroke and traumatic brain injury. In 2001, Dynavision International contracted TSS Technologies in West Chester to manufacture the D2.

Since expanding Dynavision into Ohio, the concussion issue has permeated throughout youth, college and professional sports while medical professionals have seen positive correlations between the D2 and concussion recovery.

“If they have concussion, it shows up immediately and, as they recover, the numbers show it,” says Jones.

Jones says the company is now connecting all the information collected by the D2s throughout the world to create a large database for engineers and medical practitioners.

“There is still a lot to be learned, but we’re creating a large body of evidence that supports [the D2],” says Jones.